Process of and apparatus for treating tobacco



Dec. 8, 1953 A. w. scHoENBAUM ETAL 2,661,745

PROCESS OF' AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING TOBACCO 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed March 17, 195o IN T/S ATT DeC- 8, 1953 A. w. SCHOENBAUM ET A1. 2,561,746

PROCESS OF- AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING TOBACCO 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 17, 1950 Patented Dec. 8, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PROCESS 'OF AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING TOBACCO of New Jersey Application March 17, 1950, Serial No. 150,144

7 Claims.

This invention relates to the process of separating tobacco from stems or slivers providing a means for recovering a substantial portion of the tobacco rejected by the feeder of a cigarette making machine.

In the manufacture of cigarettes, the blended tobacco, of which the cigarette is to be made, is delivered to a hopper at the rear of the cigarette making machine. The proper quantity of tobacco to form cigarettes of a given weight at the speed at which the machine is operating is fed from the hopper by means of a feed roll and a refuser roll. Between these two rolls and the point where the tobacco is placed on the paper, a winnower removes slivers or stems that were not removed during the stemming of the tobacco. The term "sliver is used to designate a portion of the midrib or large vein of the tobacco leaf.

The winnower removes stems or slivers to which leaf portions are attached and also removes particles of tobacco leaf which have become curled or compacted and therefore go with the slivers instead of the leaf material during winnowing. Attempts have heretofore been made to separate tobacco entangled with or attached to these slivers by means of an air blast. Such attempts were not successful. It was found that the tobacco must first be conditioned to obtain any appreciable quantity of usable tobacco by such operation.

The present invention is directed to a process of and apparatus for recovering a major portion of this tobacco. The residue from the winnower is delivered to a pipe connected to a source of air under pressure and a source of steam. At the point where the tobacco meets the blasts of air and steam, its direction is changed and the rapid acceleration of the tobacco by the air blast tears the tobacco from the slivers and opens up the curled pieces of tobacco. This action can be facilitated by placing spirally arranged baffles in the pipe to give a whirling motion to the material passing through it. Sufficient steam is supplied with the air to raise the moisture content of the tobacco to the point where it will not be broken or powdered by the action of the air blast.

The passage of the tobacco material through the pipe mechanically separates the tobacco leaf from the stems and conditions the curled or compacted leaf portions to permit actual separation of the two by means of an air separator. To decelerate the tobacco prior to delivery to the air separator, the treated material may be delivered into a chamber having foraminous walls through which the air may escape and in which the material is blown or delivered against a target. After striking the target. it falls upon a belt where it is conveyed to an air separator. The air separator is of substantially standard construction but, to meet the requirements of a small load .of relatively small particles, it is provided with a narrow air column or throat.- With the mechanical bond between the leaf material and the slivers removed and with the curled tobacco opened, the air separator delivers the leaf tobaccoV from the top where it falls upon a travelling conveyor and the heavier slivers fall to a suitable discharge at the bottom of the separator.

In actual practice a series of these devices are used in tandem, the rejected material from one separator passing to the conveyor pipe of the next apparatus where additional tobacco is removed from the slivers. The quantity of tobacco in the slivers is known and we have found that when four of the devices are used in tandem, substantially all of the tobacco is removed.

In the accompanying drawings we have shown one embodiment of the invention. In this showing:

Fig. l is a plan view showing a series of the devices arranged in tandem;

Fig. 2 is a vertical, sectional View on line 2-2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a vertical, sectional view on line 3 3 of Fig.. 1; Y e Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the target an hood;

Fig. 5 is a vertical, sectional view on line 5--5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a detailed, sectional view on line 6-6 of Fig. 5; and

Fig. 'l' is a view of the conduit showing the means for imparting a whirling action to the slivers and tobacco.

Referring to the drawings, the slivers from the feeding hopper of the cigarette machine are placed in a container l having a suitable feeding mechanism, such as a screw conveyor not shown, to deliver the material to an outlet 2. The outlet is preferably inclined as shown in Fig. 4 to deliver the material to opening 3 in the top of a T-joint 4. One side of the T is connected to a pipe or conduit 5 and the other side is closed by a cap Air line 1 and steam line 8 are con nected to the T-joint through openings in the cap 6. The conduit 5 extends into the front of hood S. As shown, the front, top and sides of the hood are formed to permit escape of air. The front consists of sections l0 of hardware cloth and a plate Il of sheet metal through which the conduit `5 extends, the conduit terminating a slight distance inwardly of the innerl side of the plate, as shown in dotted lines at l2 in Fig. 2 of the drawings. The top and sides of the hood may consist of a single piece of hardware cloth I3. The hood may be of any suitable shape and the hardware cloth and sheet metal plate I l may be mounted in suitable frame members is. The back of the hood is closed by a target l which may be formed of two layers of ply wood, as shown in Fig. 6 of the drawings, having a sheet metal plate i6 on its face against which the tobacco and slivers impinge. An endless belt Il extends under the hood on which the tobacco and slivers fall after hitting the target. This belt passes into an air separator I8. These air separators are used in the tobacco industry and are known. They are manufactured by Landron and Hammack and by Muller. For this particular use handling a small quantity of relatively small size mixture, the separator is provided with a relatively narrow air column or throat.

Air is fed to the bottom of the separator from a blower I8' driven by motor I9 and the air blast travelling upwardly carries the lighter leaf tobacco to the top where it falls on to a belt 2s. The heavier slivers fall into a hopper 2i at the bottom of the separator and are delivered to a conduit 22. As shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, the conduits 22 each are connected to the hood I3 of a second piece of apparatus and the inlet ends of lthese conduits are provided with T-joints 4 to which air lines 'l and steam lines 8 are connected.

In operation as the mixture of tobacco and slivers is fed from container l through outlet 2 into the T connection 4, it changes direction and is rapidly accelerated. This unfolds spirals of tobacco leaf, which would otherwise be acted upon in the same way as slivers in the air separator and it also removes or strips tobacco particles which are physically attached to the slivers. The introduction of steam moistens the tobacco and prevents it from being reduced to a powder or dust. From the conduit 5 the thus conditioned tobacco is delivered against a target l5 and its speed of travel is decelerated. The air escapes through the Walls of the hood and the tobacco falls on to belt I7. Deceleration of the tobacco is necessary before delivering it to the air separator I8. In the air separator the lighter tobacco particles which have been separated from the slivers and the coils or spirals of tobacco leaf which would otherwise not respond to air separation, are separated from the slivers in a well known manner.

We have also found that conditioning of the tobacco for air separation can be improved if the mixture of tobacco and slivers is given a whirling motion when passing through the oonduit 5. For this purpose we may provide a spirally arranged plate 23 in the pipe 5 (see Fig. 7).

In a specific installation of the apparatus disclosed, the conduit 5 is 3 inches in diameter and the air line i is one-half inch in diameter. Air under fty pounds pressure is delivered through this line. Sufficient steam is delivered by the steam line 8 to raise the moisture content to approximately 14 percent in the tobacco and approximately 13.5 in the stems. By employing four of the devices in tandem, as illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawings, we have been able to remove substantially all of the usable tobacco from the slivers. A greater or lesser number of the devices may, of course, be employed.

We claim:

l.. The process of separating tobacco particles entangled with or physically attached to slivers which comprises feeding the tobacco particles and slivers into a conduit with a change of direction, at the same time submitting it to a blast o air and steam to accelerate its movement through the conduit, and separating the tobacco from the slivers by an air separator.

2. The process of separating tobacco particles entangled with or physically attached to slivers which comprises feeding the tobacco particles and slivers into a conduit with a change of direction, moistening the tobacco, submitting it to a blast of air to accelerate its movement through the conduit, and separating the tobacco from the slivers by an air separator.

3. The process of separating tobacco particles entangled with or physically attached to slivers which comprises feeding the tobacco particles and slivers into a conduit with a change of direc tion, moistening the tobacco, submitting it to a blast of air to accelerate its movement through the conduit, imparting a whirling motion to the tobacco as it travels through the conduit, and separating the tobacco from he slivers by an air separator.

4. The process of separating tobacco particles entangled with or physically attached to slivers which comprises feeding the tobacco particles and slivers into a conduit with a change of direction, moistening the tobacco, submitting it to a blast of air to accelerate its movement through the conduit, then decelerating the speed of movement of the mixture, and separating the tobacco leaf from the slivers by an air separator.

5. The process of separating tobacco particles entangled with or physically attached to slivers which comprises feeding the tobacco particles and slivers into a conduit with a change of direction, moistening the tobacco, submitting it to a blast of air to accelerate its movement through the conduit, delivering the material against a target while permitting the escape of air to decelerate the material, and then separating the tobacco leaf from the slivers by an air separator.

6. The process ofseparating tobacco particles entangled with or physically attached to slivers which comprises feeding the tobacco particles and slivers through a conduit by means of an air blast, submitting it to a whirling movement while passing through the conduit, and separat ing the tobacco from the slivers by an oir separator.

7. Apparatus of the character described comprising a conduit, means for delivering a mixture of slivers and tobacco into the conduit at an angle to the axis of the conduit, means for effecting an air blast to feed the tobacco through the conduit, a steam pipe entering the end of the conduit to moisten the tobacco at the time it is submitted to the air blast, a target against which the mixture is delivered to decelerate its movement, and an air separator to separate the tobacco leaf from the slivers.

ALEXANDER W. SCHOENBAUM. HAROLD L. BARNES.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 697,511 Mayo Apr. 15, 1902 709,956 Bailey Sept. 39, 1902 1,310,815 Weaver July 22, 1919 1,383,441 Sturtevant July 5, 1921 2,018,918 Lorentz Oct. 29, 1935 2,129,874 Ross Sept. 13, 1938 v2,257,326 Eissmann Dec. 23, 1941 (ai, N 

